Santa's Helper

Santa's Helper, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Eight teachers (plus one who was with Xander for the two previous years, so make it nine). Two therapists. Two support staffs. A whole lot of cookies. As in six batches (of about 36 each) and nearly five hours of baking and packaging.

With so many people who have day-to-day contact with the boys, it's hard to come up with an appropriate (and affordable) gift to say "thank you" for all that they do. The boys are all having great school years, and the twins continue to show remarkable progress in their third year of Early Start.

That means I fall back to my usual holiday gift - cookies. Homemade chocolate chip.

It's the very least I can do for people who go out of their way to help our boys succeed.

Traditions ...

Keepsake Ornaments, originally uploaded by cheryl.

A simple little tradition we started years ago. Every year, we pick up a Keepsake ornament for the boys, one that represents a little piece of who they are that year (or attempts to anyway).

For Connor, I considered two characters that he absolutely loves - Scooby Doo and Curious George. I ended up with Curious George - it seems to be an all-around favorite for him. Sometimes he likes Scooby Doo, but always - whether books or television or movies - he loves Curious George. His last three or four library books from school have been Curious George, even though he owns the treasury collection that has most of them already in it. Still, that's what he picks to bring home.

For Sawyer, the choice was easy. He's been obsessing over the Shrek 2 movie, which happens to be my favorite of the series. It's the only one he ever wants to watch. And no, it's not lost on me that it involves a green character - his least favorite color. Truth be told, I think he might be reversing himself. He's been sorting out all the green states in Connor's new wooden puzzle map of the United States. He still won't touch the green Crunch Berries though.

For Xander, the choice was also easy. We'd done a Crayola one for him before, but art is still one of his greatest loves. He's always begging to pull the art supplies out of the closet. He brings home more "artwork" than both of his brothers combined. He simply loves it. Besides, it's not like they have a Hallmark ornament dedicated to playing computer games. Not even a laptop ornament. So really, what choice did I have?

Three boys, three ornaments. A favorite tradition.

Silly Sentences

Silly Sentences, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Homework. It's the bane of our existence sometimes. Connor hates it. HATES it. He apparently is over his fascination with big kid school. He complains every single day about going to school. He really complains when we have to do homework after he's already been at school all day long.

Kindergarten is pretty hard core these days. I remember nap time and play time, and it doesn't really sound like Connor gets much (if any) of that in his day. The poor kid is being asked to learn Chinese, for goodness sake.

And he's also expected to read by the end of the school year.

Most of his homework focuses on that. A large part of it is sight words - flash cards of sorts that help him learn to recognize words on sight (rather than sounding them out). He has about 50 words we're working with (five new ones come home every week). He knows most - between 35 and 40 depending on the day. He struggles with a few that look similar, or have similar endings. But overall, he does pretty well.

Except when he's tired. And then he just starts naming any word he can think of, regardless of whether it has any of the same letters in it as the one you're showing him. Today he told me "do" for "but," because clearly those are similar. But there was a pattern, and the pattern was he was done. We'd worked on them for about 30 minutes, and he was simply tired.

So we took a break, or so he thought. We got out the new game that Uncle Brian and Cousins Austin and Kyndal got him for Christmas over the weekend. It's called Silly Sentences. It's basically sight words. Despite that fact, he was enthused. We played for an hour. We even had to leave the finished ones on his desk "to study later" or so I was told.

"A ball ate a green banana."

"A thin hero jumped on a squirrel."

Silly. But sentences. And using sight words, capital letters, and punctuation. He had fun, and he had no idea he was still doing his homework.

Christmas at the Lake

Christmas at the Lake, originally uploaded by cheryl.

For the first time in months (like eight, if you want to count), I had a weekend off. And even better, it was a paid weekend off. This past weekend was the one we worked out to spend at the lake with my family. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Brian and his kids Austin and Kyndal, and our family all got together to celebrate the holiday.

Our family drove down Friday night after Daddy got home from his job at the fire academy. Uncle Brian and his kids followed us on Saturday morning (cousin Kyndal had a dance recital on Friday night). We spent the day hanging out, catching up and enjoying some down time from work and school and the general chaos of our lives. The boys also enjoyed Grandpa's new flat screen television on the loft, especially around basketball game time.

Grandma made a big holiday dinner - two actually, since Brian and I can't agree on a favorite. She made roast beef and noodles for me, complete with white beans and yeast rolls, and turkey and gravy with green beans, corn and cranberry sauce for Brian. Everyone sampled a little bit of it all.

After dinner, the kids waited restlessly for present time. We did manage to let Grandma clean up the kitchen a little before the attacked. Grandpa even lit a fire in the fireplace, which the twins were fascinated by for quite some time. And then it was time to start ...

Youngest to oldest was the order. Xander, by all of three minutes, started. Then Sawyer. And then Connor. Next was Kyndal. Last was Austin. They all got a lot of great presents. The little guys had some texture toys (which of course made them happy) and some puzzles and motion books. Connor got a really BIG Lincoln Logs set with a train, a book and a sight word game, Kyndal got some art supplies, some Zoo Pets, and some clothes from her favorite store - Justice, and Austin got some clothes, the Percy Jackson book series, and some candy.

Before the night was over, the rain that had started to fall turned to snow. And that meant we all left a little earlier than planned on Sunday morning. Cousin Kyndal has another dance recital Sunday afternoon, and they had to be there in time for dress rehearsals.

Grandma sent us all off with a big country breakfast - sausage, country ham, bacon, biscuits, gravy and scrambled eggs (last minute switch, as there wasn't time to fry that many eggs - sorry Grandpa)!

It was a nice chance to take a break from the sometimes chaos of the holiday season. No school, no work, no rushing around. The lake is a great place for that. Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful holiday weekend!

Things I Did Yesterday

Got up at the crack of dawn - as usual - to get Connor up and dressed and fed before school. We leave the house just after 7 every morning.

Pretended to watch a few minutes of the Today just before 8 when the twins and I got back from Connor's car line drop off. Actually, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep. Normally I would have just gone back to bed for an hour or so, but the Christmas tree is a bit too much temptation for two little boys. I was on guard duty, even if I was dozing.

Got the twins dressed and fed and ready to school. We leave around 10:15 for their drop off.

I also managed to sort through the pantry, create a grocery list and organize coupons before heading out the door. Because that was stop number two.

But first, I had to drive to one of our rental properties, pick up a rent check, deposit that into our bank account, so I could pay for said groceries. It was a BIG list. It was the Wal-Mart list, which I haven't done in months. I purposefully put it off.

Next, rush through the store and try to find everything on the list, make sure I give the clerk the coupons (I'm notorious for forgetting this part), load it all into the truck, rush home, put it all away, and take a breath.

But only one, because then it's time to start school pick ups. I was actually running a few minutes late, but normally I leave at 1:15 to head over to the twins' school. They dismiss at 1:35 (sometimes earlier, because you know the teachers are ready to end their day by then - the first session, which we of course don't do, starts at 7 in the morning).

Now it's hurry up and wait time. We drive the back ways to get to Connor's school - there's less traffic and it kills a little time. We have an hour between the twins' dismissal and Connor's dismissal.

"French fries!" pipes up from the back seat. Xander cannot pass this stretch of fast food heaven without making at least one request. Usually it's multiple requests, followed by kicking and screaming when it's denied (we stop one day, the other four are not so pleasant for him).

And, I am hungry. Starving, actually, since I forgot about breakfast for me and didn't really have time for lunch. So we stop for the second time this week (bad, I know, but it's been a crazy, busy holiday filled week).

We go through the drive-thru today, pick up Arby's, and then head on over to get our spot in line. We're always one of the first 10 or so cars at Connor's school. We get a spot along the sidewalk, which means Connor will come out with the very first group of car line kids.

And we eat. And drink. And wait. And wait and wait and wait. Those 40 minutes take forever some days. Especially when the twins are not in a good mood. Sawyer had fallen asleep at school again yesterday, and he was crabby. He stopped being pitiful just long enough to eat his french fries and drink some of my Mountain Dew, and then it was back to pitiful. Because I wouldn't let him have ALL of my Mountain Dew. Mean Mommy, clearly.

Finally, Connor came out. We waited for traffic to clear, then headed home.

I had work to finish - a design project for a friend who helps with her local holiday home tour. I also needed to put the finishing touches on Grammy's birthday present - as in assembling it and wrapping it. And then there were some other design projects to work on - two calendar projects for Grammy and Pappy for Christmas gifts (tick, tick - right?).

I spent a lot of the afternoon working on the computer, much to my children's annoyance. Especially Xander's. It is his computer, you know.

We were also running out of time for the family photo that goes on the annual Christmas card. The tree just went up Tuesday night, so we haven't had many days. Why not throw that in to yesterday's chaos, too. We changed the boys into "nice" clothes, posed for pictures, and made everyone miserable (that's what pictures do to people, right?). After about a hundred takes (literally), we salvaged a few to merge together. Love my Photoshop, even if it was more time on the computer. Xander really didn't like me at this point. PBSkids.org was waiting for him.

And then it was time for Grammy's birthday dinner. Aunt Kelly and Uncle Aaron, and Grammy and Pappy all came over to enjoy take-out (P.F. Chang's, which Grammy and I both LOVE). We ate, we opened gifts, and we enjoyed the night.

Then it was time to review the calendar projects, and make some minor changes. And then some more edits to the home tour project.

And then bake some cookies for Josh to take to fire school today for their weekly fundraiser (the recruits make lunch for the academy, which instructors and others purchase to help them raise money).

I made it to bed about 3 this morning. And rolled out again three and a half short hours later.

Today has been much the same. The holidays ... they can be fun at times, but they can also wear you out.

Is it bed time yet? (Oh, and we still have to drive two hours to the lake tonight for early Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa ... did I mention that?)